75 N.Y.S. 537 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1902
This action was brought to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by reason of the negligence of the owners and tenants of a building. At the close of plaintiff’s case the complaint was dismissed as to the tenants, and the negligence of the owners of the building was thereafter submitted to the jury. The jury rendered a verdict of $1,000, which the court set aside and granted a new trial, and this appeal is taken from the judgment dismissing the complaint, as well as from the order setting aside the verdict.
The owners of the building leased a portion of it to the defendants Kratzenstein, Meyers and Wallach (composing the firm of Kratzenstein & Co.) and the other portion to one Nusbaum, who is
The defendants’ negligence is based upon the alleged fact that they had failed to comply with section 28 of chapter 275 of the Laws of 1892 (amdg. Laws of 1882, chap. 410, § 492). This section, in substance, provides that in any building in which there shall be a hoistway or freight elevator, or wellhole not inclosed in walls constructed of brick or other fireproof material, the openings thereof, through and upon each floor, shall be provided with a substantial guard or gate and with such good and sufficient trap doors with which to close the same, as may be directed and approved by the superintendent of buildings, who has
The case here under consideration, it seems to us, comes directly within Weiss v. Jenkins (39 App. Div. 567). There a bar had been placed across the opening into an elevator shaft, and while the plaintiff’s intestate and another man were leaning against it waiting for the car to descend, the bar slipped from the cleat in which it rested, and the intestate was thrown into the shaft and killed. We
The order setting aside the verdict, therefore, must be reversed with costs, the verdict reinstated, and judgment directed for the .plaintiff in accordance with the verdict, with costs.
The judgment dismissing the complaint as against the defendant Kratzenstein & Co. must be affirmed, with costs.
Van Brunt, P. J., Patterson, Ingraham and Hatch, JJ., concurred.
Order setting aside verdict reversed, with costs, verdict reinstated and judgment directed for plaintiff on verdict, with costs. Judgment dismissing complaint as against defendant Kratzenstein & Co. •affirmed, with costs.